Automatic water heater



J. BEARD.

AUTOMATIC WATER HEATER.

APPLICATION FILED DEC-6, 1920.

1,420,513.- Patented June 20,1922.

I 5 m 6- l5 l8 J 6'. v 2a 20 v 23 l4 I I I I I l l i 7 & a I l9 '7 -6 gt a 4% 9 9\ l1vvs1v ro1v JAMES BEARD BY flymw m Arr'vs.

To all whom it may concern:

omran I STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES BEARD, or PASADENA, CALIFORNIA.

-. Specification of Letters Patent;

AUTOMATIGFWATER HEATER.

Application filed December 6, i950. SeriaLNo. 428,777.

. and useful Improvements in Automatic Water Heaters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to automatic water heaters and has for its object to provide controlling means fora device of this kind wherein mechanism actuated by the flow of liquid and the cut-01f valve for the fuel operated by said mechanism are to be contained within a single casing so as to provide an exteremely simple and compact structure.

The invention will be readily understood from the following description of the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing the portion of a water heater having the improved controlling means applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the controlling device.

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are vertical sections on the lines 3-3, 44 and 55 of Fig. 2.

The water heater may be of any usual construction, including casing 1, mounted upon a pedestal 2 and containing any usual type of burner (not shown), the water inlet is shown at 3 and the fuel inlet for the burner is shown at 4.

The controlling mechanism for the fuel adapted to permit the supplying of the fuel to the burner when water is withdrawn from the heater, consists of a housing 5 having vertical bores 6 and 7 arranged alongside of one another. Bore 7 terminates at its base in a conduit 8, to which is attached the water supply pipe 9 and a conduit 10 communicates with bore 7 above the base thereof. This conduit is connected to the water supply pipe 3 leading to the water heater.

A piston 11 is mounted in bore 7 and is normally seated at the base thereof by means of a coil spring 12 received around the piston rod 13, which projects through the top of easing 5, preferably through a suitable stufiing box 14.

When the piston is seated at the base of bore 7 by the action of spring 12, conduit 10 is shut off from conduit 8, but when the water supply to the water heater is discharged as by opening a faucet, the pressure of the water in the conduit 8 will raise pis- Patented June20, 1 22 ton 11 against the actionof its spring'soas' to permit the flow of the water from condu1t'8v to conduit 10 and thence to the water heater; When the discharge of wateragain ceases, the pressure a ainst the opposite faces of the piston will again be balanced I and' s'pring 12 will again seat the piston.

The movement of the piston as thus described is adapted to actuate the cut-off valve for the fuel supply. For this purpose a fuel inlet 15 communicates with the bore 6 and a fuel outlet 16 is arranged in alignment therewith, the fuel inlet being connected to a fuel supply pipe 17 and the fuel outlet being connected to the pipe 4 leading to the burner. The supply pipe may be provided with any usual manually operated cutoff valve 18.

'A valve rod 19 is slidable within bore 6, and when seated is adapted to shut ofi communication between inlet 15 and outlet 16 and thereby stop the supply of fuel to the burner. This valve rod is adapted to be raised when piston 11 is raised so as to permit the supply of fuel to the burner through inlet 15 and outlet 16 whenever water is withdrawn from the heater.

As an instance of this arrangement, piston rod 18 projects beyond its stufling box 14 and is provided with a laterally bent end 20 received in a slot provided in the end of valve rod 19'. A leaf spring 22 in this slot, beneath the end of the piston rod, yieldably urges the latter upwardly within the slot and a nut 23, threaded onto the end of the valve rod, is adapted to adjust the piston rod with relation to the valve rod against the tension of spring 22.

It will be noted that, the construction as thus set forth provides a compact arrangement wherein the fuel supply is started whenever water is withdrawn from the heater, and is shut off as soon as the withdrawal of water ceases.

I claim:

1. An automatic valve for water heaters comprisin a body having a water conduit and a fue? conduit, a valve normally urged to closed position for preventing the flow of 1 water through the water conduit, but adaptfuel through the fuel conduit, said second valve having a slotted stem projecting from the body and receiving the bent" terminal of the rod whereby movement of the first valve to open or closed position .Wilh-effecta c0r respondingmovement of the second valve 2; An automatic valve. for Water heaters comprising a body having a watenconduit and a fuel conduit, a valve nofmally urged aterthe-quel he we idu ;;b 1ep t e-meve 9 Qpen pos t n vh ethee e e el e 5 he t rt eiee siiz e des the; a:

able in thebody to control the passage of fuel through the fuel c0nduit,'said second valve having aslottedstem projecting from thebody and receiving the bent terminal of the 'rod' 'whereby movement of the first valve to open or closed positionwill effect a 001 responding movementrof the second valve a a leaf splying intenp osed between the rod terminal -and valve stem, and'a nut threaded on the valve stem and'eng agealole withqthe-i rodi tetrninal for adjusting the; positionof the red,Within. the stem Whenehy e-m15,-.

tive positions-"of thetvvo can be varied i n est-ime y whe qfha igne me 2 sp cifi ati n JALMEJSJBEARD. i 

